Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128202
THO World Supercross GP SeriesiAMA Supercross Series Round 8/7: Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome MINNEAPOUS, MN, FEB. 15 he THQ World Supercross GP/AMA Supercross Series left the sun and fun of the West Coast after a six-week run, moving halfway across the country to Minneapolis' Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in the well-frozen Midwest. The weather wasn't the only difference, nor was it the most important - that would be the track surface. Following six weeks on what riders describe as the concrete tracks of California, they embraced the softer indoor dirt of the Metrodome. Yes, it became mildly rutted throughout the night, and the grooming done to a triple-triple before the main didn't help, but overall, it was good news. It also meant using different skills. The techniques that work on hard pack won't work in the softer dirt. There weren't an inordinate number of spills, but there always seemed to T (Above) Ric"" Carmichael racked up his fourth win of the season In Minneapolis, extending his points lead a further 10 points to 14. He's won every race he hasn't crashed In. (Left) Ezra Lusk had another strong ride for second In the Metrodome, but he said he still Isn't comfortable. He finished eight seconds behind Carmichael. 6 FEBRUARY 26, 2003' cue • e nevvs be someone picking himself up off the track - twice, it was Yamaha's Chad Reed. Four laps into the main, Reed passed American Honda's Ricky Carmichael, who didn't retaliate, instead waiting for his chance, racing the track, and watching Reed closely. "I was just going to try to get behind Chad [Reed] and follow him; just follow his lines and just learn them," Carmichael said. He wouldn't learn much. Just over a lap later, and a few corners and' whoop sections after taking the lead from Team Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's Ezra Lusk in the same corner where he'd passed Carmichael, Reed lost both wheels and crashed. He would crash again later and eventually finish sixth. Carmichael, third at the time of Reed's first spill, sped after Lusk, who he'd catch and pass on the sixth lap. Carmichael didn't so much speed away as edge away, later saying that he wanted to get to the halfway mark before reassessing his strategy. "I think there's only a certain speed you can ride those bikes, and if you go any faster than it's going to throw you off," Carmichael said after winning the race by 7.99 seconds, his fourth win of the year and third Minneapolis win in a row, this time before a crowd of 49,732. "I felt like tonight, I felt if I went any faster and tried to be a hero, it was going to be all over. I just had to have patience. It's easy for me to be patient. I've been the only guy in the top five every race, so that's what it takes to win titles." Carmichael added a few points to his championship lead, now ahead of Reed by 14, 160-146, after seven of 16 AMA Supercross rounds. Lusk finished a comfortable second despite admitting ttlat he was never comfortable. Yamahas took the next two spots: Timmy Ferry passed a tiring and physically hindered David Vuillemin just over two laps from the end. The podium reflected an East Coast bias - two Floridians and the Georgian Lusk. Mach 1 Yamaha's Nick Wey was fifth ahead of Reed, who recovered from 11th after his crash on the sixth lap to finish sixth. MotoXXX's Damon Huffman scored his best finish yet on the Honda CRF450R, a seventh, well in front of Star Racing's Keith R. Johnson, who bettered his previous best Supercross finish, also achieved in Minneapolis, with his eighth. Then came Huffman's teammate Larry Ward and American Honda's Ernesto Fonseca. Fonseca survived a nasty crash in the whoop section in his heat race then fell in the first corner of the main before recovering to take 10th. Since winning in Phoenix, the second race of the year, Lusk said he'd